1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to data processing systems and, more particularly, to value chain optimization in business scenarios.
2. Description of the Related Art
Every day, more businesses gain access to the Web, and create electronic commerce systems. Electronic commerce, or “e-commerce,” is the term often used to refer to providing goods and services to consumers and/or other businesses using the Internet. E-commerce is a unique opportunity for businesses of any size and can expand a business's marketplace.
Developing a coherent e-commerce initiative can take an enormous amount of resources. Simply purchasing a Web server and Internet shopping software does not enable a business to profit from e-commerce, regardless of the business. That is, intensifying global competition, increasing customer demands, and rapidly changing markets require a business wanting to create an e-commerce business initiative to develop not only new business models but also new ways to represent these models. Current business models do not conform well with “Internet time” and should be redefined for suitability in the e-commerce age.
To help a business redefine its business model and gain a more refined control over various e-commerce business processes, the concept of “business modeling” has become important to help optimize business processes. Business modeling may include creating a set of “navigational maps” that help businesses expand into and/or “engineer” a new area. The models may be a set of tools, or charts corresponding to various business scenarios and business processes (e.g., organizational charts, workflows, tasks, hierarchy charts, entity relationship models, and process matrixes).
To visualize business processes and scenarios, businesses use both “Value Chains” and “Event Driven Process Chains” (EPCs). Value chains are chains of value-added events starting from a beginning of the making of an end-product (or service) through the completion of the making of the end-product. Thus, a value chain describes the creation process from raw material until the final product.
EPCs are also an integral part in visualizing business processes and scenarios. EPCs link data, tasks, and organizations in various business processes. EPCs depict processes and activities throughout an enterprise as linear flow charts to help the enterprise refine their business. An EPC consists of events (e.g., an order is received), functions (e.g., check order), linking operators that connect events and functions, and a process path that represents logical connections between processes within a business scenario. Although EPCs provide increased levels of optimization when implemented in an enterprise, and accordingly help businesses create e-commerce initiatives, they are limited in their features capability and do not provide any cross-enterprise functionality.